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Thursday, May 03, 2007

Rose finally "makes" the blog

I have, on occasion, asked a few different people to ghostwrite an entry on my blog. It usually comes about from someone saying, "You should write about the time...", to which I normally respond, "You write it and I'll post it". Well, apparently tired of the lack of mentions in my blog, Rose got it together and wrote the following.It should be noted that I had planned on writing this story at some point in time, but Rose did a better job than I would have anyhow.

I had just broken up with Stacey (you may remember her from such posts as Vegas: 2003) after a 6 year relationship. I was in a somewhat delicate state (to put it mildly) and I was seeking comfort in the warm, welcoming arms of one of my closest, nicest, most beautiful, special, caring friends, Rose. You probably won’t remember her from too many posts because we don’t have the drama. Anyway, I took Rose to one of my favorite places, Pei Wei for dinner. We placed our order and began looking around for a table. If you have ever been to the Big PW you know that some of the tables (especially those built for two) are really close together. On this particular occasion the these were the only tables left, so we sat down and began to wait for our food. I’m going to say I had the Honey Seared Shrimp. And that’s all fine and well, but here’s where the story gets weird.

Rose and I were soon joined by neighbors to our right. They sat down and immediately began having a conversation, so we didn’t pay them much mind, an act we thought was mutual, but were soon to find out was not. I was telling Rose about how hard I thought it was to meet people (read: women) and sharing my feelings about the “loss” of Stacey. Rose, to her credit, was being quite understanding and sympathetic considering that she had a major crush on me for a long period of time and was Stacey’s best friend until we started dating. Thank God all of our drama is now in the past, lest I would be forced to regale you with the banal minutiae of our early relationship…in which I pretty much come off like a jackass.

Rose was telling me something like, “Don’t worry, you’ll probably find someone, but you know what? Even if you don’t, we all die alone anyway, so it doesn’t matter. I mean sure, it’s nice to be with someone, but you can’t take them with you…well, you can, but generally the law and society frown on murder-suicides. That’s not how you want to be remembered.” Now let me say a little something about Rose. She uses humor to cope in situations. It’s taken me years to break her down to a level where she will actually communicate what her problem is instead of just using sarcasm to wear me down. So she said this in jest to lighten the mood. And here’s where it all went downhill….

One of the women at the table next to us, turned to Rose and said, “No one ever has to die alone. I’m a spiritual person and a counselor of sorts and I can tell you that no one ever ever has to die alone. There is always hope and people to be there for you.” Rose then tried to stammer out something about “just kidding”, but the women pressed on. “You don’t have to despair, if you ever need anything, I want you to take this card. You can call me any time.” She handed Rose an index card with a name, number and some message scrawled across the bottom. Then she and her companion left. After she left, Rose and I looked at each other for a good 3 minutes without speaking, so great was our shock.

Rose was the first to speak, “What the hell just happened here? And why the hell was she talking to me, you’re the one that’s gonna die alone. I still have prospects.”

“I don’t know what just happened here, but what does that card say?”

Rose looked at the card and said... “I can’t quite make it out, but I think it says, “Shamanic Transitions”. We just stared at each other for a moment in awe. “What the hell are 'Shamanic Transitions'?”, Rose asked and looked to me for guidance.

“How the hell would I know?”

We sort of made some half-assed attempts at conversation for the rest of our meal, but I think we were a little shaken by the experience. And to this day, I cannot enter a Pei Wei without seruptiously checking for the crazies and attempting to avoid them.

My guess is the woman's note was referring to the transition from being an ordinary person to becoming a primordial awakened blissful being. Some shamans also work with people that are troubled and experiencing transitions that are a normal component of life.

The most well-known western shaman is Don Juan. Don Juan was made legendary in a series of books written by Carlos Castaneda – the most widely read book, of course is ; The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge .